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I've said it before, I'll say it again: my MZ Wallace crossbody is one of my favorites for travel and errands. I've got an older version, but this newer crossbody looks fabulous — a removable pouch, tons of pockets, and a pretty braided strap as well as a crossbody strap. I'm picturing the burgundy patent because, c'mon, how pretty — but there are also matte versions as well as other shades, including basic black. The bag is $325-$335 at Nordstrom and Bloomingdales — and yes, it does come in larger versions if you're on the hunt for more of a tote. Pictured: Downtown Crosby Crossbody Bag This post contains affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!Sales of note for 10.24.24
- Nordstrom – Fall sale, up to 50% off!
- Ann Taylor – Friends of Ann Event, 30% off! Suits are included in the 30% off!
- Banana Republic Factory – 40-60% off everything, and redeem Stylecash!
- Boden – 10% off new styles with code; free shipping over $75
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off a lot of sale items, with code
- J.Crew – Friends & Family event, 30% off sitewide.
- J.Crew Factory – 40% off everything
- Lo & Sons – Fall Sale, up to 35% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
- Neiman Marcus – Up to 30% off on new arrivals
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 40% off entire purchase, plus free shipping no minimum
- White House Black Market – Buy more, save more; buy 3+ get an extra 50% off
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
Some of our latest threadjacks include:
- What to say to friends and family who threaten to not vote?
- What boots do you expect to wear this fall and winter?
- What beauty treatments do you do on a regular basis to look polished?
- Can I skip the annual family event my workplace holds, even if I'm a manager?
- What small steps can I take today to get myself a little more “together” and not feel so frazzled all of the time?
- The oldest daughter is America's social safety net — change my mind…
- What have you lost your taste for as you've aged?
- Tell me about your favorite adventure travels…
Anonymous
These just look like sloppy diaper bags to me.
Anon
Yeah this bag is….not great.
Anon
Nothing about this bag seems attractive to me, especially at the price.
Ellen
Kat, I love this bag, and especially b/c it is a cross body bag, I can wear it in the city and more importantly, in the subway, b/c crossbody bags protect against the thugs ripping them off your shoulder and running away, like they do in many urban areas. FOOEY on men who do this, and once in a while, women too. DOUBEL FOOEY!
I will not be around on Monday b/c I am going to LI to spend the Rosh Hashanah holiday at home with my parents. We will be going to services and again, I must face a rash of 30 something singel men, some of whom I have known for years, and others who are now divorced. All look at me like hungry jackals sniffing around me like a piece of meat they need for dinner. FOOEY on them. If I was interested in them, I would have done something about it, but I am NOT interested in any of these loosers. The divorced ones are worthless retreads with baggage, and the singel ones are schmoes who can’t wait to tell their freinds that they will be makeing a play for me at services — I find out about this every year thru the grapevine, as other women talk to Mom and Grandma Trudy about me, and now that I am a partner, it is incessent. Dad says that is the price of fame, but I say FOOEY!
MZ Wallace Question
I carry an OG for work. And during the weekend, I’m a hot mess of carrying a wallet (beat-up), iPhone, and reading glasses and tissues. Often just in my hands. I think that this bag is too small and I’m not big on cross-body bags. What is a good MZ Wallace bag that zips on top (not the metro tote) to try to shlep my stuff around? I keep trying the website and honestly there are too many choices. And haven’t had time to go to their store on any of my recent NYC trips.
Anonymous
I’ve never shopped this brand, but thought I’d give it a go for you. Here’s my pick. Smallish, zips, shoulder strap but not necessarily crossbody.
https://www.mzwallace.com/shop/products/1217b1580/port-bedford-gramercy-satchel/23086.html?&cgid=shoulder
But honestly, if I were going to spend that much money on a bag, I wouldn’t buy this brand (are they really worth that price?). There are so many other bags I like far better than these.
anon
I’ve just now started paying my maid enough over a year that we need to pay taxes. We pay our nanny through care.com but with our maid, she doesn’t come every week and sometimes changes up her day of the week to come. What’s the best way to handle this? I could do care.com but then I guess I’d have to call them to make any alterations, which isn’t ideal.
Anonymous
I report via care.com and can update up to TH before it gets finalized on F.
FWIW, I do it to pay the right nanny taxes and WH on her. As long as I have paid her the right amount, sometimes it gets entered on the wrong week. It just has to be right quarterly and right for the year, I’m not sure being hypercorrect mattrers.
Anonymous
Huh did not realize “maid” was still a term people use
Anon
That’s so funny because I heard a young colleague refer to our office cleaning staff as “the maids” today and it sounded so dated.
Anonymous
What’s wrong with saying maid?
Anon09er
Maid is gendered and sounds like you live in Downton Abby.
Anonymous
I think that a maid does a lot of personal things for you. Like when company comes over, she brings out tea. She tells callers that Mrs. Jones is indisposed (e.g., hung over, bedding the pool boy, etc.). Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter would have had a maid.
I have a cleaning service. They clean my house. Usually when I am not there. They are not complicit in my indiscretions, not do they serve tea. They clean. And they merely clean. And that alone is awesome. But they are not maids.
Anon
I grew up with a maid who came a couple of times a week and on occasions. She cleaned, did laundry, ironed, sometimes watched us kids, and helped my mother prep for and cleanup from parties, and served at the parties. She also ate with us for meals while she was there, sat with family at weddings and funerals, and was known to fix herself a drink and circulate at parties when things were slow, much to the despair of the great aunts. We thought it was fine. These days I have someone who comes weekly and only cleans. We refer to her as a housekeeper, but I think that sounds ridiculous, as if we lived at Downton Abbey and had a staff, instead of in a perfectly ordinary house. House cleaner sounds so impersonal to me. Word choice is meaningful and can be difficult.
Anon
I think people use it to distinguish from a cleaning service, which implies both 1) service, not individual and 2) (imo anyway) a lower frequency, weekly at most, most often every other week – I think of maid (or housekeeper) as someone who comes daily or a few times a week.
Anon09er
Maybe it’s regional thing? Sounds dated/sexist/classist to my northeastern US ears. But my DH who grew up in Houston uses it. Makes me cringe when he uses it. But I also had to teach him not to call the 40-something women in his office who were senior to him “girls.”
anon
But maid does not equal girl. If someone can articulate a reason that it’s sexist, I’m all ears.
anon
Because men are not called maids. It is a historic synonym for girl. Obvs it’s sexist language.
That being said, I’ve never met a man who works cleaning homes. So I don’t think language is really the issue here.
Anonymous
The dictionary definition is literally “a woman or girl employed to do domestic work”
Maid is not used to refer to a man.
anon
I have seen several men on care.c0m who clean houses. I was pleasantly surprised. Alas, I am not interested in letting a man do my laundry, which is part of what I was looking for.
Anon
My friend’s husband cleans houses for a living.
Anon
Maybe don’t call any of the women in his office girls. If they’re old enough to work there, they’re not girls.
Skipper
I always say “cleaner.” It’s not gendered, and it’s accurate. Maid is gendered, so it enforces the idea of cleaning as women’s work. Plus, it’s kind of like “masseuse” in that it’s a word that’s gotten a strong “sexy” association over the years.
Anon
There are lots of cleaning services that have “maid” in the name, so I don’t think people in that profession find it pejorative.
Anon
Or at least the people who own those businesses don’t
Anon
A couple of our local businesses with “maid” in the name are owned by women who clean houses themselves, fwiw.
Anonymous
I’ve had male and female house cleaners booked via Handy and our office cleaners are two guys so “maid” is a pretty outdated and gendered term to me. Cleaners or housecleaners is what I go with
Anonymous
I had a coworker who used this term a lot and English was not the first language in his home (although he was born in the US). So I wonder if that can be a factor.
Anon
We used HomePay (which I think is owned by Care.com) for our nanny – it was super easy to change her hours online if she took a sick day or worked over time. The service is pricey though, I think we paid about $1000/year for it.
red acne scars
Any drugstore remedies that work well?
And is there anything at a medspa (retin-a, laser) that would work / work better?
Anon
Time. All the other stuff is just advertising. There are remedies for brown marks but not red.
Anon
Not available at the drug store, but Amazon is pretty close– https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06VSX2B1S?tag=amz-mkt-chr-us-20&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-org00-win81-other-smile-us000-pcomp-feature-scomp-wm-5&ref=aa_scomp
I’ve had really good results putting this on my face at night before a moisturizer. I had a really severe breakout a few weeks ago after a vacation, and this has been the only thing that seems to have helped make my skin look better.
Anon
I’ve used The Ordinary Niacinimide for redness and found it works really well.
S in Chicago
Ipl laser. I had it done at the Med spa attached to my dermatologist. Also good for broken blood vessels and sun spots.
Anonymous
Will fall get here already? I’m looking forward to jackets and tights weather.
Anon
I’m happy for the warm weather, but when it’s freezing cold in the morning and like 80 in the afternoon I struggle with getting dressed!
pugsnbourbon
Today is our first objectively nice fall day (mid-70s and sunny) but it’s supposed to be 91 on October 1. I don’t even know.
Worry about yourself
I feel you, I hate having to carry my nice fall jacket later in the day.
Anon
I’m just looking forward to “not 95” like it will be throughout the weekend and next week. The pools are all closed, but the weather is scorching.
Anon
I hate it! It’s supposed to be 91 on October 1 in my town, which would be an all-time record high (also this is the Midwest, so it will probably snow on October 15). I miss having a real fall.
Mrs. Jones
Preach. It’s supposed to be mid-90s for the next several days and I have HAD IT.
Anon
Where can I get a relatively unbiased (ha) interpretation of the dumpster fire that is our white house right now? I can’t keep up….
Anon
NPR
Anonymous
Specifically, Left Right and Center.
Pffft
NPR is incredibly biased towards the liberal viewpoint.
Anonymous
NPR is incredibly biased towards the liberal viewpoint.
Anon
+1 million for the BBC.
Anon
Try reading articles from both sides.
anonshmanon
Left Right and center podcast is nice and rage-free.
Anonymous
The New York Times, the Wall Street journal, the financial times, or the Washington Post.
Anon
+1 to all these, and NPR
Anonymous
The New York Times is very, very biased.
anon
I’ve been reading The Hill as well as some of the others mentioned above.
Programmable thermostat
I need to get a new programmable thermostat, and am thinking about getting something that connects to the wifi so I can modify on my phone. I’ve heard of the nest, but not others. Any recommendations? Drawbacks I should consider?
A.
We have an EcoBee, recommended by our (trusted) furnace install guy. There were reasons, which I now cannot recall, that he and his team recommended this over the Nest. It’s been terrific, and comes with Am@zon Alexa built in which is a nice bonus. It can be remotely controlled via an app on your phone.
waffles
We have an ecobee. I don’t know exactly why we chose that one, but my husband did a lot of research.
I know there are considerations about the number of wires behind your thermostat. Older homes and older thermostats sometimes have two wires, which is enough to run an old thermostat, but newer ones need power and things and need three or four wires. If you don’t have enough wires, you have to look into an adaptor or something.
LJ
I had a less expensive Honeywell one and now have a Nest (I moved houses) and both work great – just depends on cost, aesthetics, and what features you’d like. For example the Nest gives me humidity and the Honeywell did not. Both will likely go on sale over Black Friday if you’re willing to wait.
Jules
Late to this, but if you’re still checking,I have one from Emerson, either the device itself or the software is called Sensi. I’m not sure why I got it instead of the Nest – the independent HVAC guy who installed my new furnace waskind of clueless about this but one of his buddies recommended it, I think.
It does include humidity info, and it has worked great for me.
Pierced
I have recently moved into the conservative professional world from NGOs/academic spaces. I have two facial piercings – one is my septum, which I have been hiding since I started a new job about a month ago. The other is a nostril piercing which currently has a small gold hoop in it.
I’m getting really self-conscious about my piercings and how they will affect my ability to get hired or network. I worry about how I look to Important People like partners or C-suite execs. I am thinking about letting my septum close and putting a small stud in my nostril. It sucks though! They feel like such an integral part of me and my personality. Any advice?
anon
What city are you in? Honestly, I think it definitely will impact how you are viewed in the professional world. If nothing else, it is distracting because it is uncommon in that world (even the nostril). I suspect this may vary based on region. I’m in (urban) Texas.
Pierced
I’m in DC! I have seen like one other person with a nostril piercing and none with septums.
Anon
I’m in the Bay Area and work in NYC all the time, in finance so a conservative leaning field.
A small stud in your nose wouldn’t be an issue here (maybe I’d steer clear of the hoop) but the septum would be out of place. Can you really hide it? If so I’d probably keep doing that.
Anon
What’s your role? If you’re a paralegal, this is fine. If you’re a lawyer, it will hold you back professionally. For reference, I’m a financial services lawyer in DC.
Go For It
I have a darling tiny septum piercing that I never hid as a trial lawyer in the Mountain West … I woulda quit first
oh no
I think the only people who can get away with a nose piercing professionally outside of a super duper liberal area or industry are Indian/desi women, since it’s culturally common. Septum ring — big nope.
How to efficiently use paper planners?
I know the subject of paper planners has come up before, but how do you all maximize its potential and/or make your life better?
I’m a technical consultant that works on a bunch of rolling projects at once, and oftentimes I get thrown into projects with 2 or 3 week turnarounds and it makes it so so hard to properly plan for stuff. And yet… I’m a planner by nature and I love using paper planners but it’s so hard to keep up! I’m transitioning into more of a project management role so I want to be able to keep on top of projects and people in a more efficient way… Do I just need to constantly update my paper planner? Do you sit down at the beginning of the week and try to plan out as much as possible?
Life & Law
I use the Life & Law Planner that Heather Hubbard put out last year. It has a place to track projects/daily to-do lists. It’s “law” friendly b/c it has a slot for time billed estimates and how long it actually took you, but other than that, works for any profession. She’s coming out with a project tracker notebook to go along with the planner for 2020.
Pink
Help me think through this please. I want to save $100 per pay check for spending money (I get paid weekly), but I will probably use it to buy stuff online, so I can’t just pull $100 cash out of my checking account every week Do I: Open a savings account that is tied to my checking? I’d have to transfer the funds back before I could use them. Or do I open a separate account at a local bank/credit union and transfer the money there? Or is there a third option that’s better? I’m probably overthinking this.
AnonInfinity
I have a financial planner friend who recommends starting a new checking account with a debit card for spending money. Much easier than cash and you can shop online. Plus you can check your balance and once it’s gone, it’s gone. No need to do mental math to decide how much to save for the bills and other goals.
I have recently converted to YNAB, and just set up a category in that for fun money with a designated amount each month. That way I can just spend out of my normal account, but once that budget category is 0, I know I can’t spend anymore on that stuff.
Anon
Just track your monthly spending in a spreadsheet and stop when you reach $100. Beats moving money back and forth.
Vicky Austin
If you’re paid by direct deposit, can you have $100 plus normal expenses go into your checking account, and everything else into a savings account?
Anon
+1 that’s what I did for a long time and it worked (until my situation got more complex).
Anonymous
A simple way is to leave the money in your normal account and keep a log on paper (or your phone, or wherever you keep lists of stuff): each payday, add $100. Every time you spend, write down what you spent and subtract it from the total. If you get down to $0, you can’t spend any more, even if there’s money in your account.
Pink
Thanks for the replies, everyone! Since discipline is the challenge, I will probably open a separate checking account.
Legal recruiter gift
Hello! I’m thrilled to be starting at a new firm soon (mid-level associate), and my amazing, patient recruiter worked with me for a period of about 18 months (3 different rounds of doing interviews) before I found a firm that fit. Obviously she gets a fee for placing me, but it is common to send some sort of thank you gift? Thanks!
Anonymous
Nope. She gets the fee and your enthusiastic referrals
Anonymous
I met my recruiter for lunch and gave her a bottle of wine. I was already social with her, so the lunch would have happened either way, but I did want to get her something to acknowledge the assist. In my case, she was also not fully compensated, so it was especially appropriate.
Mary Lou Retton
Any recommendations for the “why are you interested in this position?” question for an interview for an internal promotion? The a major leadership position in my organization has opened up (like senior VP in corporate worlds ), and the two candidates for the role are the acting director (formerly second in command) and me. The real answer to this question is ‘Because I’m only 50 and I can’t handle working somewhere that is run this poorly until I retire’ – over the years I have crafted a nice niche for myself in my individual contributor role, and get the benefit of making a nice impact beyond my division, and earning top compensation levels in doing so. It is just getting harder and harder to get anything done, and I’ve gotten demoralized. My coworkers have been supportive of my application, so I might guess I’m not the only one who feels this way. What’s a good ‘spin’ besides something generic about being ready to take the next step?
Anonymous
Because you know how to take the company to the next levrl